94 Octane

Helping a buddy of mine install new carpet in his '70 Stingray. He bought it from Mid America. He was initially just going to do the front but he has decided to do the rear also.

Has anyone replaced the carpet in their bumper car? Any tips, tricks, or gotchya's to watch out for.

What kind of glue should he get?

TIA,

94 Octane

Edzred72

3-M Spray adhesive has worked well for many of us. Don't overdo it with glue. Use in stratigic areas like humps, valleys, contours etc. Fit carpet smooth & tight in place before trimming. Allow for overlap where interior parts hold it down. (sill plates, shift & P-brake console, kick panels, storage compartment frame etc.) before trimming. To locate component mount holes through the carpet, poke nails through the carpet from under the car. You can also burn clean holes through the carpet for component mounting (seats, retractor covers, etc) instead of cutting. Cut flaps in the carpet for the forward seat tracks that will fold over the mount bolts & track to hide them. Sometimes underlayment removal is necessary under the seat tracks so the bolts reach, or get longer bolts.
Pretty straight forward but remember....fit twice....cut once.
Have fun
Eddie

SmokedTires

I used an ice pick to located the holes for the seat bracket bolt holes

carhound

Are you going to use a sound deadener or heat barrier under the carpet? You might ought to, or you, like myself, will be thinking about redoing it in a few years. I was just reading an old post that I had put in my favorites, and one of the guys was talking about using a product from the roofing section of Lowe's instead of dynamat. He said that it was "self stick, Aluminum faced, peel and seal." He said that it came in 6" by 25' rolls for about 10 bucks a roll. Has anyone used this stuff ??

jlsru

I used this stuff in my 75 a couple of years ago.Sticks real well and confroms to the floor great.

carhound

Did you use it for sound or heat. I know that some are using reflectix from Lowe's for heat. How did it work?

kdf1986

I used a soldering iron to burn holes for the seat locations.

Once you find out where the seat goes, and where the holes in the carpet shoud be....and yes...an ice pick works great for that....then you can use the soldering iron to burn through the carpet, make the hole, and have it seal the surrounding fabric simultaneously.

Not many time you get to use the word simultaneously,.....but it works here.

kdf

Sandiego70

I used mid america and wound up using no spray at all, matter of fact my original was not glued (or glue had let go). I bought the kit with heat sheild installed on carpet. I did not redo the back deck, just the fender wells and the compartment lids, I have a can of that 3-m un- opened. Use old carpet to measure and mark holes. But wait till in place to confirm, you will note the carpet does not match original exactly, especially the height under the dash. But I found with hardware and trims in place no glue needed. I did use some contact on the lids for compartments.

use the time to clean up seat frames, etc.

Good luck.

Brad Maynard

i used the heating/cooling duct insulation on my C5 primarily for sound but was planning to use it on my 71 for heat as I have heard that the cockpit can heat up quite a bit on the c3's.

Using it on my c5 seemed to make it a little more difficult to conform carpet to correct areas/line up holes, etc. but overall I definitely like it.

Stingray1973

Carpet installation is not that bad as long as your are patient and have some sharp razor blades! It can be done in a few hours but you will def have some cutting to do.
I used 3M Spray Adhesive from Home Depot and "BeCool" insulation which was 1/6 the cost of heat barrier and works well! Also can be found at Home Depot or Lowe's. You'll want to apply spray adhesive to both the car or heat material and the carpet...just give it a few minutes to tack up and then apply the carpet. However, size and pre-cut the carpet and try for fit before you pull out the adhesive.
The area above the wheel weels and around the storage compartment is the toughest and will require some cutting but start off with a little and cut more if needed, don't get agressive cause your cuts in loop carper will easily show.
here are some pics of mine - before and after - looks like new!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/willsh...el%3as,2%3af,0

Tele_Man

Put the self-adhesive Dynamat (sound deadener) down first onto the fiberglass. Then put Reflectix (heat insulation) on top of the Dynamat with 3M spray adhesive.

68/70Vette

I'll second that comment about cutting around the rear wheel wells. i was making sequentially approximate cuts to narrow in on a good fit. All of a sudden to my suprise, one of my "approximate" cuts was actually the one that fit. If I had cut a little more I would have ruined the carpet.

Shrike

Used it on my dad's '57 GMC truck. We used it mostly on the areas that were more or less vertical (i.e. the entire firewall and inside the doors). Made a huge difference in sound. Those old trucks are like sitting inside a tin can. The peel and seal really muffled the engine and vibration noise.